The administration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has not made an official reaction but state-run television has played the incident prominently and called it a major new development in the Middle East.

Following the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran declared Israel its political arch-foe and does not recognize its sovereignty.

Ahmadinejad has even called for the elimination of the Jewish state from the Middle East and suggested it be relocated to Europe or North America. He also questioned the historic dimensions of the massacre of Jews in World War II and termed the Holocaust a "fairy tale."

The Iranian establishment hopes that political changes in Cairo could force Egypt to revise its diplomatic relations with Israel.